Shop With A Cop

[cajuncop]

Just curious to see if any other agencies that have Shop With A Cop or something similar.

We have been doing it for fifteen years. There's nothing that brightens my day more then when I see a child getting something for Christmas that he/she may not have received if it weren't for us.

We volunteer on our day off to go to Wal Mart in uniform and take about 200 children shopping. They are allowed to buy whatever they choose. Wal Mart gives us a discount on the total cost.

All money comes from officer's union dues are from donations.

[Pig]

Our FOP Lodge just started "Shop with a Cop" this year. We did it last Saturday. We had about 50 kids and it was a big success. We did ours at Super K-Mart though. They gave us a 20% discount on the purchases. We went to Wal-Mart first and they wouldn't give any type of discount and pretty much told us to get lost. Part of the funds came from lodge dues and the other came from a fund raiser we had this fall. We plan to continue it next year and make it a tradition.

[PartTimer]

Ah, I just went through this Saturday. This was my second year, there are different agencies that do it in my area. The one I did was the local SO FOP. Luckily you didn't have to be a member to participate. This year we had 53 kids, and went to wal-mart.
PIG: Wally mart changed the way they do donations this year. They didn't give us a discount, but they did contribute back to the FOP. I guess they used to give a 10% discount or something, but that has stopped. From what I heard the first Saturday of December wally donates a % of the sales to a charity. Since they did away w/ the 10% thing, they donated that money to the FOP.
I am not real big on kids, but I have fun doing it. Only rule we have, no guns toy or otherwise.

[Dinosaur]

-"Gee, Mister officer, do you think my mom will like this?"

-Trust me, kid, she'll love it!"

-"Can she really do magic with it?"

-"Hey, Hitachi wouldn't lie now, would they?

-"Well OK, if you say so. Thanks, Officer!"

[JoeNasty]

yeah, i believe greensboro did it last saturday. we were gonna do a story on it. not sure, cause i've been gone for a few days.
also one of the local state trooper offices (i think in davidson county) did it this week.
seems to be a really great program.

[Pigskin]

K-Mart did it for three years here but didn't do it this year for some reason. A handful of our officers would meet with some kids the store selected & we would have the store to ourselves before it opened one Saturday morning. We always enjoyed it greatly, even the wrapping part! May see if we can't do it through our Association next year. We're wrapping up a three-week long toy drive today & delivering them tonight with a Blue Santa. It's a fun thing, too.

[Guard Dog]

We did it under the "Shop with a Cop" banner for two years. Then we were notified that some jerk out East had a copywrite on the use of the "Shop With a Cop" title. They wanted us to share the money collected with them or the would sue. Now we are known as the #[email protected] County Police Charities. Weve been at it about 7 or 8 years. We take care of about 200 kid per year at two Walmarts. Walmart opens up at 6AM and only allows us with the kids. All the employees volunteer their time as well.

Then the Local Lions clubs serve breakfast for all the Cops, volunteers and KIDS.

[Pig]

Guard Dog
I don't know who told you that they had "Shop with a Cop" as a trademark. The Fraternal Order of Police has had "Shop with a Cop" trademarked for several years. Our FOP lodge just started the program here with great success. However, I have never known the FOP to want part of anyone's money that was collected. Seems to me that that only punishes the children. One of our local BoJangle's Restaurants, they serve chicken and biscuits and such, donated breakfast for everyone involved. One of our PD's also actually let us use one of their vans to pick up kids that did not have transportation. This was impressive since the PD and FOP don't always see things the same way.

[cajuncop]

Well today was the day. Started at 7am and finished at 11am.

I shopped with about 15 kids today. Boy am I beat. Plus, afterwards I worked my scheduled shift.

It was all worth in though.

[Mitzi]

Yes, we have it here. And all the cops say they have to MAKE the kids buy something for themselves also because they always want to get gifts for family members. Children are the most perfect people there are.

[Guard Dog]

Originally posted by Pig:
Guard Dog
I don't know who told you that they had "Shop with a Cop" as a trademark. The Fraternal Order of Police has had "Shop with a Cop" trademarked for several years.

I will get some more info from the people on the board that administers the program. It was in the paper and and there was quite a hubug about the snafu. They did receive a letter about our local being required to send a portion of the proceeds for use of the name, and people were pretty PO'd about it. I'll be off on vacation until after the first of the year then I'll get more info and post it or email it to you. I'll check the paper archives and see if they have anything about it.